Advice on structuring onsite blog page - on site links

[kwam-iT]

Hello UKBF'ers, after months of trying different strategies (guest posting, etc) I have come to terms with the good old saying that "Content is King".

I have managed to implement a blog on my website, previously I had one on a subdomain tied to blogspot but after reading a few articles, I was persuaded to sway towards going for a /blog option.

My question now is, when I post these blogs (which I intend to do at least thrice a month), do I place links in this posts to the relvant pages in my website ( I ask this because one of my competitors does it and their Ranking is enviable).

I intend to keep wordcount in the 300 - 400 mark

Any advices welcome. My site in question is kwam-iT.com/blog in case anyone would like to have a look
Kind Regards

 

[justinaldridge]

By the way the blog URL you posted is incorrect as it's missing an "s" on the end.

Anyway, yes, blogs are helpful but not when they are just "3 or 400 words" with no images and mostly promoting your services.

Blog posts should be engaging, interesting, helpful, useful and shareable. A blog post for the sake of a blog post has little value.

Internal linking is helpful but don't overdo it and just do it when it looks natural to link.

Finally, your posts are all on one page. Each post should have it's own page (URL). How can someone share a blog post if there is no specific URL for it?

So, I think you need to have a rethink about your blog strategy. Blogs should have exceptional content...otherwise they have little value.

 

[StevePoster]

Content will be the king if you craft the unique and the most interesting story that no one else has offered. It is important to have separate pages for the blog posts rather than a plain landing page which intends to just offer you a product or service.

 

[HazelC]

Yes, internal links are good but as another poster has mentioned, don't over do it. On a 300-400 word blog I wouldn't go over 3-4 internal links as a maximum.

And yes, as someone else has said you need to have a different page per blog post so you can click on the blog title / image and it goes through to a new page (and new url) so it can be shared. If it is one page of blog posts people (and you) will not be able to share the separate page / blog post. - Have a look at my website if I have not made that sentence make sense; http://www.creativecontent.company/Blog-Page.html

Try and break up the paragraphs in blog posts, use bullet points or headers to break up the content and make it easier to skim read. Include images to make it more appealing too

Think about your keywords too; there will be a lot of competition for Surface Pro 3 and three blogs a month won't be able to compete with others on these keywords so perhaps consider longer tail keywords instead that will be easier to help you climb the Google ranks.

Good Luck.

 

[fisicx]

However...

The blog isn't going to help YOUR site. There are lots of things you could do the site to improve things but an irrelevant blog isn't one of them (but there are ways you can make it work).

You are a full member so why not ask for a review - it may well open your eyes to all the multiple issues that are blocking your ranking and more importantly - conversion.

 

[webgeek]

Please don't try to cough up 300 or 400 words of unremarkable content 3 or 4 times a month.

If it isn't content you find valuable, remarkable or unique in one way or another, then it's a waste of your time and effort.

You will find that a really good blog post can add a significant boost to your site traffic (I'm using real world numbers from our analytics here).

Example:
https://www.targetdashboard.com/blo...Sales-Targets-Based-on-Prior-Performance.aspx

It's 800'ish words and is very much a How-to kind of post. It has images, step by step directions, bullet points, graphics, call outs, etc. It isn't a thrown together post done in an hour.

That post is not incredible. It got 900'ish landing page visits in the past month, up from 600 the month before, up from 400 the month before, etc, etc. It's still climbing 50% each month - and hopefully will continue this trend for some time.

By contrast:
https://www.targetdashboard.com/blog/128/How-to-Graph-Sales-Performance-Figures.aspx

It's only 650'ish words, doesn't have as many of those key elements and yet is still a How-to kinda post. It took less time to produce and is only 150 words less, give or take.

However, it also gets 1/3 the traffic and isn't gaining at the same rate as the other post. It's targeting a smaller set of keyword phrases so it's not expected to do the same.

My point?

Spend the time on something of actual value that your target audience will truly find helpful/insightful and isn't a regurgitated Wikipedia page, in 300 or 400 words.

Stop trying to produce high volumes of marginal content and start taking the time to make a few remarkable contributions to your niche.


Conclusions:

50% of our site traffic comes from 4 posts. Our average short posts contribute 1%.

Do you think I should try slinging out 40 mediocre posts in the next year, or 12 big draws like those top 4?

If I do 12, I'll have a 150% gain in my traffic, minimum.

If I do 40, I'll have a 40% gain in my traffic, maximum.

Do the math!

 

[Alan]

I like your analysis.

I just did the same on one of my sites.

Over 50% of visitors land directly on one of 4 blog posts out of 120 total.

None of them are well thought out from a key word perspective, or well written, and virtually none have images and they aren't long either. But what they are solutions I have researched for my own needs and documented, so unique and useful - and also maybe by coincidence they all relate to Google ( because when I wrote them I was doing a lot of work on Google products ).

What is interesting it that 90% of the revenue comes from 1 blog post that gets less than 1% of the overall traffic.

Now there is food for thought .. what if I just ....

 

[fisicx]

I know a chap in the USA who writes 3-4 blog posts per year. That's the only marketing he does. The posts are rich with content and they draw in enough visitors to earn him a living. All from one blog post every few months.

 

[kwam-iT]

The problem I think thought is my business isn't content based. Effectively, what I am trying to say is I am not after my getting my blog posts to rank, I want my homepage and my ' get a quote' page to rank....thats the challenge. I have looked at a lot of my competitors and some don't even have a blog.

The challenge with my blog posts having a separate page is technical (my website is designed on a not so easy framework) . One work around is I could do my blog posts on blogger? Will this be beneficial?

 

[webgeek]

Your original post said you planned on blogging 3 or so times per month to boost your other pages.

You want visitors to your site who might be interested in buying your stuff, right?

A crappy 300 word blog post is not going to do much to boost your other pages. That's the whole point. A great blog post will draw a ton of traffic. You put a CTA on the page and those people get directed where you want them to go.

The blog is just a giant magnet or funnel. It attracts people and then filters/redirects them where you want them. You won't send people from your pricing page to your blog, but you would send them from your blog to your pricing page.

Oh, the links from that great page to others on your site will give them an authority boost, so they rank better for their core terms.

Don't do your posts on blogger - you want them on your domain. Set up Wordpress on a subdomain and then you can have the WP site on any hosting anywhere, tied to your site by the domain name and links in and around it.

Or, chuck your hard to work with platform and move over to something that isn't a royal pain to deal with.

 

[fisicx]

The problem I think thought is my business isn't content based.

It could be. There are loads of ways you could add content to the site which would boost your ranking, add credibility and improve conversions.

All you need is to post in the website reviews forum.

 

[kwam-iT]

It could be. There are loads of ways you could add content to the site which would boost your ranking, add credibility and improve conversions.

All you need is to post in the website reviews forum.

I have now done this but not got much Feedback yet.

 

[AWheller]

Content for the sake of content isn't advisable. Whacking a small word-count guideline of 300-400 words isn't a great idea either.

Instead of writing three or four sub-standard blogs each month you would generate a better response if you wrote only one each month, but that single post was research-lead, data-heavy and accurate to actually help the searchers accomplish their queries.

I hope this helps!

 

[Amber2017]

Blogs are a good addition to your website, as long as your content is relevant and interesting to your industry which you are targeting. And if you were going to add a link again make sure it is relevant to the subject I would recommend 1 link so it is not spam. Also, will you be uploading your blogs to social media?